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St. Francis High Helps Students Be More
Like Francis of Assisi
St. Francis High School in Athol Springs, New York
St. Francis High School in Athol Springs, New York is Franciscan in name and spirit. Its president, Conventual Franciscan Friar Michael Sajda and the other friars and lay people on the staff at the school are not only excellent teachers and administrators but also dedicated persons who strive to live like St. Francis of Assisi and bring his way of life to their students.
The St. Francis High School community
One of the school’s programs that brings St. Francis of Assisi’s ideas to St. Francis High students is the Social Justice Outreach Program. Francis was all about social justice. In his time much like in ours various people were excluded from society because they were either sick or somehow different from the supposed norm. Francis embraced excluded people – such as lepers – and reaffirmed to them their humanity. God loves you and cares for you is what he wanted these excluded people to know.
St. Francis of Assisi
St. Francis High School’s Social Justice Outreach Program brings students closer to vulnerable people in their community. During their time at St. Francis High, students need to volunteer 40 hours in service to others. The service – the high school stipulates – must focus on helping persons who are young, sick, poor, or elderly. Such a stipulation allows students to increase the chance that they will have to deal with persons outside of their social circle. This is after all what St. Francis of Assisi did when he embraced the leper. He had been born into a prosperous family, which allowed him to live an insulated life of pleasure. God however opened Francis up to the wider world, bringing him to the realization that he had to change his ways and serve the vulnerable and excluded.
(Source of all related images on webpage and homepage: www.stfrancishigh.org.)
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